


No Room for Feelings

by TsukimoriMadoka



Category: Devil May Cry, DmC: Devil May Cry
Genre: Crossover, Dante and Vergil are Idiots, Dimension Travel, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Gen, Let's hope it makes any sense, More characters might be added, One-Sided Attraction, Or in other words: stay away from portals, Rating May Change, Romance, Secrets, Sibling Bonding, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, THERE IS PLOT, Tags May Change, There will be DMC5 spoilers in a distant future, This story idea is years old, Trust Issues, We still love them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2019-11-15 20:05:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18080048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsukimoriMadoka/pseuds/TsukimoriMadoka
Summary: Sam had always been able to see demons, often wondering why it had to be her and not someone else. Luckily enough with Nathan and his younger sister Florence, she had found two people to have her back no matter what. When the siblings decided to move away from their home, Sam had joined them. A new life in a new city. Things had to be better right?Unfortunately, Limbo City wasn’t better. Her only hope of dealing with her gift and the slowly encroaching danger of demons appearing around her and her friends are two Nephilim. While Sam is glad for the help she gets, Florence doesn’t like the situation she finds herself in due to various reasons.And it doesn’t get better when a portal spits out two half-demons who have the same names as the Nephilim.





	1. Prologue

The apartment was dark and quiet. Almost eerily so. The only sound within the place was the ticking of clocks coming from various rooms and the only light illuminating them was what little made it through the windows. A few street lights, but mostly the moon as the apartment lay on the 6th floor of the building and the light from below could barely reach the windows up here. 

It was almost 10pm when Florence entered the apartment and put her jacket away. She didn't bother turning on the lights, she could move around the place in the dark. The lack of sound was strange to her though. 

All Florence could hear was the clock in the kitchen to her left and in the living room to her right. 

_Tick tock tick tock_

“Sam?”

No answer. 

There was no need to call for her brother as he wasn't here anyway. Nathan was on a trip with a couple of his friends from university. He had left a week ago and according to him wouldn't be back for at least another three weeks. That left Florence alone with her best friend Sam, short for Samantha but she never really liked the long form of her name. Sam should've been home, yet she wasn't. Something about that made Florence worry. She was 19, Sam was 17. In a way, Florence felt responsible to make sure her best friend was okay.

Even if Sam could take care of herself, it was unlike her to not inform Florence of her whereabouts.

Pulling out her phone Florence was ready to give Sam a call when she heard a noise. It sounded like someone was opening and closing a cupboard. More importantly, the noise was coming from Sam's room. Was she here after all? Making her way down the hallway to the room her best friend occupied Florence found the door stood slightly open.

“Sam?” Florence carefully opened the door further. For a second she thought she saw a person standing in the room and it turned out her eyes weren’t deceiving her. Their form illuminated by the moonlight. That definitely wasn't Sam. The person was taller and the moment they noticed Florence their head turned towards the door, eyes gleaming red. No, Sam had no red glowing eyes. 

The person or creature, whatever they were, began to let out a loud screech causing Florence to cover her ears before running back towards the front door. If she could make it out, she could alert her neighbors. They sure must have heard the screech anyway right? Only one way to find out. Not bothering to grab something for defense if she needed it, Florence ran without looking back. She could hear another set of footsteps behind her. No doubt the intruder was hot on her heels.

Grabbing the door handle Florence opened the door, ready to continue running.

Several things did happen as she did so.

The door swung open and Florence took another step before running into someone, causing her to stumble backward and fall to the ground with a ‘thud’. A sharp pain in her back and left arm made her cry out. It was then when her best friends voice reached her ears.

“Flo?”

Looking up she saw Sam who first looked at her, but then at whatever was behind her. Florence could see Sam taking a step back, eyes wide before she grabbed a skateboard leaning against the wall near the door. Sam was ready to attack when they both heard glass shatter. Turning around to look towards the living room they could see a human shape who had seemingly jumped through the window and now walked into their direction. The closer they got, the more both women recognized the person who had entered their home. Not by name, but they had seen the dark-haired man before.

It didn’t stop Sam from asking the question. “Who the hell are you?”

“The name is Dante.”


	2. The Beginning of the End

**One week earlier**

There were cities which seemed to glow from the inside. Their streets and billboards sparkling like gems and illuminating the darkness, ultimately pushing it away even during the darkest hours. New York and Las Vegas were cities like that. Limbo City? Not so much. Even during the day, the darkness seemed to be just around the corner. No streetlights could change that. Most humans weren’t aware of that though and lived their lives day in and day out. Then there were those who noticed it but didn’t give it much thought and those, like Sam, who knew the reason behind the looming darkness.

If she had a say in that matter she would prefer to be like those who didn’t know but she wasn’t granted the ignorance she yearned for. The young woman going by the name of Leta Samantha Rose, being called Sam by everyone, hadn’t been ‘normal’ since her birth.

When she had been a year old her father had left, leaving her alone with her mother who was young and inexperienced. She wasn’t sure how to raise a kid by herself and when she noticed something was wrong with her daughter she lost it. 

Sam had learned the hard way that it was better to keep certain things to yourself. Being able to see demons? Yes, definitely something you shouldn’t tell others. Especially not a mother who was unable to cope with raising you by herself in the first place. By now she had learned to keep her mouth shut when she spotted someone or something that wasn’t human because they had horns, a tail, algae growing on their face or anything else unusual that basically screamed ‘demon’ at her.

Thanks to her job as a bike messenger, she knew the city better than most. She knew of places to avoid. Either during certain times of the day or at all. For some reason that was still unknown to her, Limbo City was way worse than her hometown. She could see demons everywhere she turned, making it sometimes hard to ignore them. From smoke to smother as some people liked to say. The saying definitely was more than fitting. It was also because of her job that a lot of people thought Sam had grown up here in Limbo City when in truth she had moved here just about two years ago. At least she didn’t look like a tourist and could blend in with others. Didn’t help her to run from demons though. 

Sam hadn’t come to Limbo City alone. Instead, she had moved together with her best friends Nathan and Florence Taylor. Nathan and Florence were siblings and to Sam, they were her siblings as well. Both of them were the only ones from her old home who stood beside her without questioning. 

Nathan didn’t know a lot about her ‘gift’ though, he also never questioned it in the past. Like when Sam would come over after school to play with Florence in the garden and ultimately stare at something that wasn’t there before running inside in fear, to ask Nathan to protect her. He always managed to calm her down even without knowing what was going on. And Sam didn’t even want him to know. She had told Florence about seeing something and the other girl, while obviously not believing her at first, shrugged it off, stating that she still wanted to be friends with Sam and that Nathan would protect them, so she didn’t need to worry about any monsters.

After seeing yet another demon, at a time where she would still go to her mother and her dismissing her daughter, Sam went to Florence who, for the first time told her that she believed her friend. That moment changed something for Sam and so when Nathan announced he would move away to attend university and Florence decided to go with him, Sam didn’t think twice about joining.

Despite the girls' young age, neither of their parents spoke against them moving. Especially not Sam’s mother. She seemed rather glad about her daughter moving away. One more reason for Sam to pack everything she needed as fast as she possibly could to meet up with Florence and Nathan, and stay with them until their departure. 

The three of them had become their own little family since living together with Nathan being the older brother to both of them. Sam and her mother lost contact completely after she moved and didn’t even acknowledge her existence anymore after everything she had done. Or not done. Yes, she was the person to give birth to her but clearly failed at being a parent. As for Florence and Nathan, they occasionally would call their parents who had moved to Pittsburgh half a year after they had moved to Limbo City. While Nathan was still rather close with his parents, Florence had distanced herself during her teenage years and would now only call on birthdays or holidays stating that the people who were the most important to her, were around her every day and that she could go without her parents.

Sometimes Sam wondered if there was a reason for it, going to Nathan and asking him but even he couldn’t give her an answer to that. 

Parking her bicycle at the back entrance of the café Florence worked at, Sam took off her helmet and put her short black hair back into place. There was a reason she never let it grew longer than to her chin. After securing her bike, she moved around to the front and entered the building. Her blue eyes spotted her best friend immediately. The black haired woman was standing behind the counter, talking to a customer who waited for his order for takeaway. Sam could see the smile on her friends face as she spoke. For some reason, she always managed to smile and it was addictive. The customers would smile back, engage in conversations and come back the next day. Or seemingly stay forever like the two older ladies sitting by the right side window in the front. They were here every day, meeting in front of the café when it opened and staying for several hours to talk about god knows what. 

Sam wished her and Florence would become like those two. Meet every day even at an old age when they, hopefully, had families of their own.

Besides the two older women, who greeted Sam as she entered, there was one other customer Sam recognized from before. A silver-haired man sitting by himself with a cup of coffee, reading a book. He appeared as if he couldn’t even hear the chatter around him. Whatever that book was, it had to be good.

Walking closer to the counter Sam caught the rest of the conversation between Florence and the customer. 

“You should bring your fiancée next time to try some of the cake. I’m sure Joseph would love to see you here as well”, she handed the man two cups of coffee.

“We’ll try to do that”, he said as he took the cups. “Joseph sure isn’t around much lately. Everything okay with him?”

“Oh yes, no worries. His daughter gave birth to a second child a few days ago so he’s with the family.”

“Ah, I remember he talked about the pregnancy. Tell him and his family I said hello and give them my best wishes.”

“I will”, another smile as the man said his goodbyes and went to leave. It was then when Florence spotted her best friend and moved around the counter to give her a hug. “Hey. Finished with work?”

Nodding Sam went to stand beside the counter. “For now, just delivered the last package and since there’s no new assignment I thought I’d stop by and grab a drink while I have the time to do so. We’re still up for cooking together later?”

“Yeah”, Florence had already grabbed a cup and began to prepare the coffee. “You wanted to make curry right? I might need to make a stop on the way home to grab a few things for that.”

“I can do that”, Sam pitched in and watched as Florence turned the cup counterclockwise two times before pouring in the coffee. “Will you ever stop doing that?”

“No, don’t think so. It’s a habit”, she gave a little laugh as she finished pouring and gave the cup to Sam. “Feels wrong if I don’t do it. I mean.. I’m not questioning your habits regarding a certain present Nate gave you as a kid.”

Sam gave her best friend a stern look. She knew all too well that Florence meant a plush dinosaur which indeed was a present from Nathan years ago. Ever since she had gotten it she would cuddle it in her sleep. Even now she still did so. She couldn’t help the fact that she needed something to hold as she went to bed. There was this irrational fear of being alone if she wasn’t able to do so. So in a way, she could understand Florence and her habit of turning the cups.

“Alright, I’ll shut up”, she took a sip from the coffee. “Now, back to cooking. I pick up the ingredients and meet you home?” 

Florence agreed. She still had a few more hours to go and Sam should be finished with her work earlier anyway. It gave Florence a bit more time to go through a few things with her coworker once they would arrive. With Joseph, the owner of the café, not around it was Florence’s responsibility to take care of everything. In a way, she had grown to become the secondary owner. That, of course, was nothing official but Joseph trusted her like she was part of his family, causing Florence to joke and sometimes call him her grandpa. He didn’t mind at all, in fact, he seemed to love it. 

“By the way”, Sam leaned over the counter watching Florence cleaning several dishes. “Looks like your stalker is back.”

Though her voice was low Florence turned to her in order to shush her. “Stop saying that.”

“Why? It’s the truth. That guy is here every day, Nate would go crazy if he knew.”

“He doesn’t and there’s no need. The man is a simple customer who comes by regularly, nothing wrong with that. Plus there are a lot of regulars here so it’s nothing weird.”

“Right..”, Sam had her doubts.

Of course, there were regulars. The two older ladies, Marlene and Ines if she wasn’t mistaken, then there were people from a nearby clothing store who stopped by during their break. Hell, even she was basically a regular even if she didn’t intend to stop by to grab something to drink or a piece of cake, but to talk to Florence. But that man.. there was something different about him. Maybe Florence didn’t want to hear it. After all, the thought of having a stalker was scary. Taking another sip Sam turned her back to Florence and surveyed the café for a bit. She could hear people sitting in the upper part talking and laughing. To her, the whole feeling inside these walls was so different from the outside world.

She felt safe. As if no demons or other things could get in here. 

Noticing the two older women waving her over Sam moved away from the counter and over towards their table.

Florence watched her friends retreating back with a smile. Ever since they had come here Sam seemed to be better. She would smile and talk more, not hide in her room as much as she did as a kid. Of course, Florence had not the slightest idea that basically wherever Sam turned, she saw demons. A few years ago she would come to Florence and tell her about what she had seen, something she didn’t do anymore and thus ended with Florence believing they were safe here.

Looking around the café even more, her eyes fell on the silver-haired man. Her stalker as Sam liked to call him. Florence hoped he wasn’t one. If she was honest with herself she did find him attractive and if she wouldn’t have been that shy she might have even started a conversation with him. Something that should’ve been easy here at work. She had no problem talking with customers. Maybe because it was, in a way, easy to initiate a simple conversation about random things like the weather, things that happened around the city but taking it a step further? That was a completely different thing.

It didn’t stop her from imagining what it would be like to be with him, and it always ended with her pushing away the thought within a few moments because she couldn't picture herself next to him. 

Pushing the thought away Florence focussed back on work. 

At one point Sam had left as she had gotten another assignment and before Florence knew her coworker Mike had arrived to take over from here. Filling him in about a few important things such as customers who were still around and didn’t look like they would leave within the time she was still here, as well as preparations for the next day. 

“You can leave me a note or send me a message if there’s anything I need to know.”

“No worries. If there’s something I’ll let you know but I’m pretty capable of handling things on my own”, he nudged Florence in the side with his elbow. 

Mike was 27 but far from being a responsible adult. Living from part-time job to part-time job most of the time he didn’t care a lot about his appearance with his shaggy brown hair and clothes that should’ve been thrown into the dumpster months ago. Just like he didn’t care how his place looked like. Florence had been there before and was shocked. While he was a tidy person at work, he wasn’t one at home. Despite that, Mike was one of the nicest persons Florence knew who, according to himself, was still trying to figure out his place in the world. 

“Sure you are”, she smiled. “I just feel that with Joseph not being around there’s a lot more work to do. I definitely start to appreciate him taking care of all the paperwork and orders.”

Mike laughed at this. Luckily to him, Joseph had never shown him how things worked behind the scenes. Probably because he didn’t trust him enough with that part of work and it was better this way too. Looking at how he had broken quite a few cups and other things during his first few weeks after starting the job, one could only imagine the damage he’d do in different departments. 

Grabbing her things, as well as coffee to go, she said goodbye to Mike and left.

A thing that caught her off guard and kept playing on her mind, was a comment Mike had made about her ‘stalker’. About ten minutes before she was finished with work, he had paid and left the café. It was then when Mike told her that the guy was weird as he would only be here when she worked and, just like he did now, leave before her. Throughout the whole way back home Florence actually felt like someone was following her. Mostly thanks to Mike’s comment but also because of Sam constantly referring to the man as a stalker. 

There were moments where she wanted to turn and look behind her just to make sure there was no one but she was too afraid. Even though it wasn’t dark yet and there were lots of people walking around, the thought alone of seeing the man from the café or someone else following her made her skin crawl. 

If she had stopped to look back during her way home she could have noticed that she indeed had someone following her. 

Vergil was careful not to be spotted. He could tell Florence was a lot more tense today than usual which probably had something to do with the fact that her friend, Samantha, had called him a stalker. Well, in a way that was the truth. He couldn’t deny that. During the past weeks, he had spent a lot of time at the café to keep an eye on it. It was, more or less, an accident that he had found it. He would walk around the city a lot when he needed to clear his mind and now, with him and his brother finally reunited to take down Mundus, there was a lot on his mind. 

During one of this walks he couldn’t help but to notice quite a few demons roaming around a building which, upon further inspection, was home to a café he hadn’t heard of until now. 

While there were demons all over the city, this seemed different and he intended to find out the reason behind it. It didn’t take long for him to realize that it was the girl, Samantha, who was the reason for the demons to flock around the place though he had no idea what was special about her. Not at that time at least. 

Starting to visit the café made him realize two things:

one, he wanted to take the girl to the Order with him as she might prove to be useful and two, Florence stood in the way of that.

He was aware that Samantha wouldn’t go with him if her friend would stay behind and so he had to gain her trust first. With Florence now believing he could be a stalker it was time to work on that and set his plan into motion. Well wasn’t he lucky her brother wasn’t around to interfere?


	3. I'll come running

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanna say a quick thanks to everyone who left kudos and reads this story. I appreciate that a lot!

Four days passed with nothing happening.

Both, Sam and Florence, would go to work, come home and usually cook together. Maybe watch some TV. It wasn’t a lot different from when Nate was around despite the fact that it was a lot quieter.

Nate would often stay up late to watch TV or play games so there were sounds and voices coming from his room no matter the time. That was missing now and it made the apartment feel very different from usual. Almost empty. Especially Florence had a hard time with that. She and Nate were close. Whenever she had a problem she would go to him and talk to him about it and right now she would rather talk to him than Sam, because she would give Florence a hard time.

The workday had started as usual.

Both women had walked to the café with Sam pushing her bike. She had it let become a habit to stay there before the opening hours if she had the time for it. And so breakfast consisted of cake and coffee, sometimes tea. While she enjoyed the slow start of the day her friend would be in the kitchen and prepare different things. Such as fresh muffins or a small cake. She would sweep the place and rearrange the decorations. While the last person to be there the evening before would make sure everything was in order, there was always something that wouldn’t be. Some days were busier than others and it was easier to take care of things in the morning than in the evening.

Today’s breakfast was cut short when Sam got a message with an assignment for a delivery that needed to be taken care of. Saying goodbye to her friend, Sam quickly finished her coffee and went to leave.

It wasn’t long after that when Florence opened the café. Marlene and Ines were already waiting outside.

“Good morning Florence”, Marlene gave her a small hug before Ines did the same. Since they had been around long before Florence began working here, they had a habit of befriending the employees. Of course, starting with Joseph himself who once mentioned that they would probably still come here as ghosts. While it was clearly a joke on his side, Florence found it slightly unsettling.

“Good morning to you as well. Your drinks will be ready in a minute.”

“Ah, we have time”, Ines said as she took off her coat and put it over the chair before sitting down. “What’s on the cake menu today? Anything different from yesterday?”

Smiling at the question, Florence practically began beaming. Until half a year ago Joseph would only serve coffee and tea, just rarely he would offer muffins he had delivered from a different place. It was Florence who started to bake little things every once in a while. There was an oven in the small kitchen so it had to be used for something. Apparently, she was the first to do so. Joseph told her she didn’t have to bake anything, but she wasn’t having any of it. At first, she would make a handful of muffins, rarely some cake, and offer it to the customers for free so they could try the taste. When it was apparent they enjoyed the treats Joseph agreed to sell them.

Since then Florence would continue to bake. Not every day but together with the Joseph they had agreed to have two specific days during the week that were labeled ‘cake day’. There were still some treats around on the other days because, just like Ines now, people would ask for something to go with their drinks and Florence enjoyed baking way too much.

“You’re lucky. I made a small lemon cake. It should be ready any minute now.”

“Oh, we’re definitely having a piece of that.”

“Of course”, making her way back to the counter she began to pour the drinks and checked to see if the cake was cooled off enough to be served.

While she was making her way to the kitchen she could hear the doorbell announcing another customer. She could hear the women greeting whoever had entered and a male voice greeting them in return. Not uncommon for them to do so. To Florence however, it meant that the person to have entered was someone who was here before. Given the last days, she had a good idea of who that person was. And she was right.

Returning to the front part of the café, tablet with cake in hand, she spotted the silver-haired man sitting in his usual spot. Florence grabbed the cups, putting them on the tablet and started to walk towards the women. As she passed the man she gave him a small nod. “I’ll be with you in a second.”

Looking up at her Vergil smiled. “I’m not in a hurry.”

Ignoring the rather charming smile Florence went to serve Marlene and Ines. “I hope you enjoy the cake. Let me know if you need anything else.”

“We will don’t worry”, Marlene’s eyes seemed to light up as she said that before moving to look at the man, then back at Florence. Her voice was a lot quieter as she said the next few words. “He sure is handsome, isn’t he?”

Great. Now not only Sam referred to the man as her stalker, same for Mike who basically said the same thing when he told her about the fact he was only here when she was, but Marlene was kind of joining the bandwagon. Well, she was right. He was handsome. And maybe a stalker.

Vergil could barely hear what the woman had said and he had to keep himself from smiling. Even more so when he noticed a shift in Florence’s demeanor. She didn’t seem too happy about it and overall he had the impression that she wasn’t used to getting attention. Which didn’t necessarily surprise him.

The café was nestled between a few other buildings with a small alley next to it eventually leading to a road behind those buildings. Some were stores, most were apartments though. During the time he had spent here he found out most people living around the area were older, only rarely he would spot people being around the same age as Florence. Maybe that was why she seemed to be more at ease with talking to people who were older than her. She also didn’t appear to go out in her free time. He would watch her enter her home and stay there until the next day. He could count the times he had watched her leave with either her brother or her friend on one hand. He had sent Dante after her to not arouse attention. Later on, his brother told him they had been at a bar where they met a group of people, turning out to be friends of Nathan. Dante mentioned that she looked like she was enjoying herself but at the same time couldn’t wait to leave. Especially after she was approached by a young man who tried to invite her to join him and his friends.

Vergil could tell that something in her had changed during the past days.

She would still greet him with a smile but it wasn’t as natural as before. From what he knew through Dante it seemed similar to what had happened at the bar: attention made her shy away. He couldn’t let that happen. And so, seeing as right now there were no other customers besides him and the two women, he decided to take his chance.

As Florence came back to his table she smiled at him. “Good morning. Do you already know what you would like to drink?”

He smiled back at her like he had done before.

God did Florence hate that smile. It gave her goosebumps. 

“I’m feeling like tea today so I’m going with an Earl Grey.”

“Of course. Anything else?”

“For now that’s all but I’d like to invite you to have some tea with me. Or something else, whichever you prefer”, he could see her smile faltering. “After work, if that’s fine with you.”

Oh, how Sam would give her a fucking hard time because even though Florence should have said ‘no’ to that, she didn’t do so.

***

Several hours and deliveries later Sam managed to take a break. 

She was, more or less, on the other side of the city so there was no way she could stop by and talk to Florence. Instead, she rode her bike down the little shopping street she was currently on. Stores left and right attracted people from near and far. Despite a few small stores here and there that caught her interest most of them didn’t sell anything interesting for her. Sure some clothes in the windows looked nice. Like a green dress, she spotted out of the corner of her eyes. For a moment she wondered if she should buy it. Maybe not now, but maybe another day when she had time to try it on. But then, as she thought about it, she decided against it. She knew there was a very small chance she would wear it and so it didn’t make sense to spend money on it.

Continuing down the street Sam grabbed a sandwich for later and sat down to eat some fried rice.

She didn’t pay much attention to her surroundings as she ate. Only occasionally she would take her time to look at the other people sitting here to eat or those who continued their way down the street.

Her blue eyes focused on a family. Father and mother, probably in their early 30s, with a little boy no older than 7. They stood close by an ice cream parlor and even without hearing anything, Sam could tell the boy tried to get his parents to buy him some. It took him a few minutes until they gave in and agreed. He looked so happy when they did.

To Sam, this interaction was one she never had.

She didn’t know her father. She had no name, no pictures. Her mother never talked about him at all and Sam came to the conclusion that it might have been a one night stand. She didn’t know for sure. There were some indications that spoke against it. Like when she was younger she would sometimes hear her mother talk to herself. About how unfair everything was. That she had been left alone with a child that wasn’t planned. Not this early in her life anyway. But she had been in love and happy, and everything seemed to be perfect. Too perfect.

The family Sam watched right now probably weren’t completely happy themselves. That’s what she wanted to believe. That there were no such things as a happy family the media liked to depict.

Hell, even she wasn’t entirely happy with Florence and Nate around.

She loved them and she knew they loved her, there was no denying that, but one thing was different between them and Sam was sure they’d never understand how it affected her:

the ability to see demons.

Yes, Florence knew it and she said she believed Sam but seeing them for yourself was so different from just hearing about it. Not that Sam would know the difference herself. She had grown up with seeing demons wherever she would turn. Even now they seemed to be everywhere. A part of her wanted to tell Florence about it. While Sam had managed to ignore most things since they moved here it became harder lately. More and more demons appeared around her. Around her friends. And she feared for what might come.

Would they eventually attack them? Kill them?

She couldn’t let that happen but to whom could she go for help? Was there anyone to be able to help her?

When her phone rang she wanted to laugh. Seriously now? She wondered if someone could help her and right then someone called? Not that the call would help in any way. Chances were high it was work-related which meant she had to hurry and eat the rest of her food. Pulling out her phone while she prepared to take another bite, her blue eyes lit up as she read the name on the display. No, this wasn’t work-related at all.

“Nate!”, she was pretty sure he could hear the smile in her voice. “What’s up? Everything okay with you and your friends?”

He chuckled. _“You sure sound like you’re happy about me calling. I’m good, same for my friends. How does it look home? The place still stands right?”_

“Everything’s fine here. It’s not as loud without you around if I might say that”, Sam wasn’t one to go to bed early or at a normal time as some might say and Nate was kind of the same. Sometimes they would sit together or they would both play something on their computer. Either on their own, together or even against each other. Days and nights like that would end up being loud and short. There were also nights where she would simply listen to him from her room. Florence wasn’t one to do that. She preferred reading in the evening and didn’t stay up as late as her brother or Sam. “You know Flo better than I do, she keeps an eye on me and our place. Don’t worry about it.”

_“Yeah well”_ , he made a short pause. _“I feel bad about calling you like that.”_

“Like that?”

_“I actually wanted to talk to Flo but she doesn’t answer so I got a bit worried something had happened, even though I suppose you would have called me if that was the case.”_

Of course, he wanted to talk to his sister. She should have known that. “As I said: we’re fine. Don’t worry too much and enjoy your trip. Flo should still be at work. I doubt she’ll have much time to answer you.”

_“I guessed she would be but even despite that she usually sends me a short message. I was hoping you were around to check on her.”_

“Nate. She’s 19, not 12. You know she can take care of herself.”

_“Yeah. Doesn’t help me not to worry about her. If you wouldn’t answer me I’d be just as worried.”_

Sam had her doubts regarding that. There was a big difference between being related or just being friends. “I still have to work myself too but if I reach her I’ll let you know.”

_“Thank you. I appreciate that a lot”_ , he paused, leaving Sam to wonder if there was more on his mind. _“Again, I’m sorry for calling you. I know you guys need to work and you’re probably glad I’m not constantly bothering you but.. call it a sibling thing or whatever, I just had a weird feeling earlier and Flo not answering doesn’t help with that.”_

***

A weird feeling.

Florence had that as well.

At this point, Mike had been at work for a few hours. Since another part-timer would come in later Mike had started work four hours after Florence began. Today appeared to be a rather slow day, at least until now, both of them had time to talk to each other and Mike took that opportunity.

Out of all the people who worked here, aside from Joseph, he thought himself the closest to Florence.

There were other part-timers, mostly students, but none of them stayed for long. This place was too quiet for most of them so they would quit after just a few weeks, leaving it to a handful of core people working here. Those being Joseph, Florence, Mike himself and a woman named Becca. Especially Joseph would look out for them. Make sure everyone was doing fine no matter how long they would stay there to work. He would also make sure the customers were having a good time being here. 

The customers weren’t the problem today. Florence however...

Her mind didn’t appear to be focused on work this day. She would get lost in her thoughts, sometimes stare off into the distance or steal glances at one of the customers. The very same Mike had tried to keep an eye on so he wasn’t trying anything weird with Florence. Turned out it was too late for that because when he took Florence to the side to ask her what was going on with her, she told him that the man had invited her to have coffee with her after work. That was something Mike hadn’t expected and neither did Florence.

He would have been the last one to decline such an invitation himself but, since he was still skeptic about this whole setup, thought it would be better that Florence stayed here for the coffee. That way he could make sure she would be okay and that he could help her out.

Which brought her to this situation:

insisting that she could finish work early Mike watched as she sat down with the man after making some coffee for herself. They had been talking for a while now with both of them smiling, Florence even chuckling at a few things the man said to her. Mike watched as she brushed a strand of her black hair back behind her ear from time to time. Hell yeah, she was nervous but apparently also charmed by whatever the man was doing.

Which to Mike’s knowledge was simply talking.

For Florence however, it was more than that. 

Yes, they were only talking but the way he did it and the way he looked at her while doing so literally made her knees weak. For some reason, she had thought he was a few years older than her when in reality it wasn’t that much. But he talked with wisdom that made it seem like he had seen a lot of things during his life. Whenever he was here she would see him read something. Mostly books, sometimes newspapers. In a way, it was refreshing to see that between all the people who would be on their phone or laptop. Florence had to admit she liked to do so as well. While she wouldn’t want to miss flipping through pages, having a phone or else to read things wherever she was at, was nice.

“I hope I wasn’t too forward when I invited you. I figured it would be the right thing to do instead of sitting here in silence looking like a creepy man”, which he was. Vergil couldn’t deny that. He didn’t intend to scare her, he couldn’t have her scared. Not of him at least.

“You certainly gave people the impression of being a stalker.”

“Hopefully I can make up for that”, he leaned forward to grab his cup, his eyes set on Florence. She was a little more relaxed than earlier this day. “I’d like to get to know you better, maybe invite you to dinner one day.”

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea’ should’ve been the answer. He could still be a stalker and yet, “I would like that.”

Good. This was working better than he thought. And it would have worked even better if Sam didn’t appear to interrupt them. She appeared out of nowhere. The doorbell announcing her sounded almost as angry as she looked. While Vergil was surprised but tried not to show it, Florence couldn’t hide her surprise. 

“Sam? Everything okay?”, she stood up.

“Apparently yes, I mean, you seem to enjoy yourself while I drive my bike through half the city because Nate calls me since you don’t answer him. He had a ‘weird feeling’ and got worried but yeah, everything’s okay”, she couldn’t believe this. Nate had had this feeling before and while it was nothing most of the time, sometimes he was right. Like when Florence locked herself in the bathroom because the key broke. But this.. for some reason when Sam had walked to the front door and saw Florence sit at a table with that guy she got upset. Turning around Sam made a beeline back outside.

Florence, not having the slightest idea what this was about, followed her suit.

Again, the bell rang as the door was opened and both women left shortly after one another.

“Sam wait!”, Florence ran after her friend as she unlocked her bike to drive away. “Please tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing. Everything is fine”, Sam took her bike, walking past Florence as she tried to stop her.

“Doesn’t seem like it.” Sam stopped, back to Florence, as she took a deep breath. “Please Sam”, Florence begged. “Listen, I’m sorry that you drove all this way because I didn’t check my phone. I didn’t want to make you worry in any way”, she reached out to touch Sam’s arm who would, upon contact, move another step away. What was even happening right now? Was this all because of a missed message from Nate? It couldn’t be. There was more to this and from the looks of it, Sam wasn’t ready to get to the bottom of this.

As the other girl turned around their eyes met for a split second. “You just wouldn’t get it anyway. You’re not..”, she stopped, eyes moving past Florence to look down the alley. Something catching her eye. Florence, noticing that, turned around to look at what was going on but didn’t see anything unusual. “Just forget it. I gotta work.” With that, Sam sat on her bike and took off leaving Florence behind.

For about two minutes Florence just stood there watching her friend disappear in the distance. It was the same moment when a crash from behind startled her and she turned back to the alley. A trash can that had been standing at the left wall was now lying in the middle of the way with no one else around. Could it have be a demon? She heard the bell of the front door. This time it was Vergil who stepped outside.

“Is your friend okay?”

“I’m not sure”, Florence said with a shrug. “I don’t think I can do any more than to wait for her to get home tonight. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I have to get back to work anyway so let’s continue this another day. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”, of course he would. Florence was working almost the whole week.

“Yeah”, she smiled. “I’m looking forward to it. Thanks for inviting me though technically I could just get a free drink.”

“It’s the thought that counts.”

“Right. Well, see you tomorrow”, with that she turned and walked back inside to grab her belongings. 

Vergil continued to stand outside, straightening his coat. There was just the slightest shift in his posture as he spoke. “Another demon.”

“They’re getting closer”, Dante, standing next to his brother in Limbo, noticed. The demons, though there had always been a lot of them, were popping up left and right. Even more so close to this Sam girl. “She saw it. Pretty sure she didn’t see me. You want me to follow her?”

“Make sure she gets home safely and then return back to the Order. We need to work on our plan.”


	4. Setting Things in Motion

Sam took her time to get back home. In fact, she took a couple of more assignments just to have something to do and to keep her mind occupied with other things than Florence and their argument from earlier. While it hadn’t been that bad per se, it was still enough for Sam to feel like shit.

She lashed out at her best friend out of nowhere and left her without an explanation.

With every intent to clear up the misunderstanding upon returning home, Sam opened the front door and entered the apartment. She didn’t hear anything at first but two things caught her attention. The smell of food coming from the kitchen and the soft glow of the TV running in the living room. Checking the kitchen first she found several pots with vegetables and meat just waiting to be heated up. So even despite the fact that Florence was probably upset herself about the situation, she still took her time to make food. Maybe this was her way of taking her thoughts away from Sam.

No matter what the reason was, Sam felt even worse.

They hadn’t been in a lot of fights so far if one could even call this a fight. Sam had walked away before things could get worse. She knew herself better than anyone even if some things still made no sense to her. One thing she knew for certain, was when to walk away from a situation she had no control over. As a kid, she couldn’t do so. Either because she had nowhere to go or realized too late that she had overstepped a boundary. And so she would get into arguments. Nothing too worse. Florence and her once had a rather heated argument about a couple of toys when they were around the age of 10. To Sam, back then, it was the worst thing she could experience aside from seeing demons.

It ended with both of them crying over, literally, nothing before hugging it out and telling the other how much they loved them, and how they never wanted to fight again.

And they didn’t. Yes, there were moments they would get upset at each other about things not being done around their home for example, but those were rare and not worth to mention.

Walking towards the living room Sam found Florence lying on the couch asleep. The TV was on mute as some show was playing. Taking her shoes and jacket off Sam walked to her friend and leaned over the couch to look at her for a few moments before softly shaking her awake.

“Hey Flo.”

“Mhm”, Florence turned in her sleep, eyes fluttering open. “Sam?” She was still sleepy. She couldn’t say how long she had been asleep at this point or what time it was now. She remembered coming home and making food. After that she sat down to watch something, ultimately putting it on mute and lying down to get a small nap. Since it wasn’t clear when or if Sam would return home, Florence was a bit at a loss as to what to do. But now Sam was back and Florence was glad about it. “When did you return home?”

“Just now”, her fingers moved over the necklace Florence was wearing in thought. “Can we talk? About what happened earlier?”

Florence nodded. “Yeah, let's do that”, she sat up to make space for Sam who sat down next to her in silence. When she didn’t say anything Florence took it upon herself to start the conversation. “Listen, I’m sorry if I did something to upset you. I can tell something is wrong but if you don’t tell me what, I can’t do anything about it. I don’t want to argue with you. I hate that and it hurts me. It probably hurts you as well so.. please, whatever is going on with you right now you can tell me”, she grabbed Sam’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “You used to do so all the time when we were kids.”

“We’re not kids anymore though”, there was a short laugh. “And I don’t wanna go back to that time anyway.” Oh hell no, she was glad that was over. Alone the thought of going back to live with her mother who believed she was crazy made her want to throw up. Sighing Sam looked Florence straight into her eyes. “Truth be told when I saw you earlier a lot of things were coming together and I think I’m just... jealous.”

Jealous? Florence was surprised to hear that as this was the first time this came up. “Because... I was having coffee with Vergil?”

“That’s his name?”, there was just the slightest smile on her lips as Florence nodded in response. “It’s not about that. Well, not entirely. Like I said there were a lot of things coming together. One, Nate calling me because he couldn’t reach you. It made me feel a bit redundant. I get that he’s your brother and all so naturally, the relationship you two have is very different from the one between him and me. So then I get to the café because I wanted to make sure everything is fine with you, I mean, who knows. For all I know something could have happened right? And then I see you enjoying yourself with this Vergil guy and I thought that’s something I’m never going to have and that you would be better off without me.”

“Why?”, Florence was beyond belief. They had been friends since kindergarten and up until now, she had believed there was nothing standing between them. Of course, they both had their secrets. Florence sure had several she wouldn’t share with anyone. But this? “We’re family, you know that right? I don’t want to lose you, there’s nothing in this world that’s worth leaving you behind. I love you as much as I love Nate. Yes, we’re not related by blood but that doesn’t mean anything.”

“To you maybe”, Sam leaned back on the couch, closing her eyes. “I’m aware Nate doesn’t mean anything bad but you know... god, this is gonna get weird”, looking back at Florence she was ready for her to freak out about what Sam was going to share. Not only about the demons lurking around the café. “I had a crush on your brother when we were younger. It was a long time ago and I’m aware he doesn’t see me as anything more than a friend, maybe a second little sister. I definitely see him as my brother - minus the crush I had as a kid of course.”

Florence’s eyes widened upon hearing that. Sam had had a crush on Nate? She was pretty sure Nate didn’t know or notice. She for sure didn’t.

“I accepted that he would never return any kind of an interest in me and I’m fine with that but sometimes I can’t help but think back to that time. When he called I thought he wanted to talk to me”, her voice became a bit lower as she talked. 

“But instead he asked you about me”, Florence finished. Now, that was one thing to get Sam upset. If their roles had been reversed she probably would’ve felt the same. To think about what it would be like if your crush called you to ask about someone else and not expressing interest in you wasn’t a good feeling to her at all. Yes, she hadn’t been in such a situation so far, so what she imagined might have been very far from how Sam felt. “You know I would’ve been fine if you told me about it. I mean, it’s kind of weird in a way too but, and I don’t want to play this down or make you feel bad or anything”, she continued as Sam nodded. “When we were kids you told me about seeing demons. And I remember you describing them to me because I didn’t see anything. You insisted they would walk down the street next to our homes or stand near the swings at the playground. Telling me you like Nate seems so trivial in comparison.”

“Sure does huh?”

A chuckle left Sam as she thought back to those days. Oh, how she remembered the playground. While it was a fun place for other children it was her personal hell. Only the fact that she wasn’t alone and had someone next to her who would listen to her talking about demons and monsters, made it better for her. She was still creeped out though. Sharing her problems with someone who listened and believed her felt good. Even right now she couldn’t help but admit that it was a good decision to confine in Florence. And she was right: the crush seemed trivial.

“What kept you from telling me?”

Sam shrugged but then shook her head with a sigh. She knew the reason. And she knew she wouldn’t be able to lie to Florence as she could tell something was off. The truth then. She was over Nate long ago. Yes, sometimes she would catch herself thinking about what could have been but that was never a good thing. Because that meant she would also think about how everything in her life would be different if she was ‘normal’. Would she know her father and would he and her mother still be together? Would she have met Flo and Nate at all? Would she be here now?

A couple of minutes passed in silence. The TV still running and its light flickering. The first noise Florence noticed aside from a few cars outside and the ticking of the clock was a sob. Almost silent. If it hadn’t been for the movement of Sam’s shoulders she probably wouldn’t have noticed it to begin with.

“Sam?”, she moved closer to her friend to wrap an arm around her. “Sam, what’s wrong?”

Wrapping her arms around Florence Sam began to sob a bit more and it wasn’t too long that she began to cry, her whole body shaking. Clinging onto her friend as if she was the only one to be able to help her. “I’m afraid to lose you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, you’ll be stuck with me for a long time alright?”, she tried to laugh it off. In an attempt to calm Sam down she moved her hand over the back of the younger girl in a circling motion. 

Trying to speak through the tears, Sam needed several tries to form coherent sentences that made sense. Did they really have that time? Sam wanted to believe it. “The demons. They’re everywhere. This is worse than home Flo and I can’t ignore it. Not anymore. You, Nate and what feels like everyone else in this city can’t see what I see. I know that you continuously say you believe me when I tell you about it but it’s really hard for me”, she moved back to wipe away her tears. “All I want is a normal life you know? I don’t wanna see demons or monsters or whatever they are. And seeing you with Vergil I also realized I wanna be able to be with someone without lying to them but I can’t see that happening.”

There were a lot of things Florence wanted to ask. Starting with the mentioned demons which seemed to be around them constantly. Florence had no idea about it and maybe it was better that way. Just hearing about it made her skin crawl. There was a subconscious fear lurking in the back of her mind that one day she would turn around a corner and come face to face with the demons Sam told her about. Or that Nate, Sam or she herself might get attacked eventually. And so she was thankful for having a, as Sam called it, normal life. Florence wanted to believe that one day Sam would be able to say the same. To be able to say she was happy.

“Don’t say that. You will find someone, believe me. Also, just because I had coffee with Vergil doesn’t mean I’m gonna marry him or anything.”

“Well I would give you a hard time if you decided to do so”, Sam noted. There were still a few tears coming but overall she felt better than before. “He’s still a stalker.”

“Maybe. At least he’s a charming one.”

“Wow”, Sam stared at her best friend with wide eyes. “Never expected you to be into creepy people. Guess today proved that you learn something new every day, don’t you? Any more dark secrets you would like to share so I feel better?”

Florence shook her head. “I’m afraid there are no more, sorry.”

That would turn out to be a lie in the future.

***

Vergil was at the café the next day.

So was Sam who had taken a day off from work. Partly because she needed time for herself. Get her thoughts in order, relax and treat herself to a few nice things. Like a long bath and ice cream. Since that would be an evening thing she tagged along with Florence deciding to spend the day at the café. Sitting down in a chair next to the entrance she took out a sketchbook. She had begun to draw whatever she saw or came to her mind a few years ago. It wasn’t only something fun to do in her spare time but also helped her to visualize what was unseen to others. Florence found it both scary and fascinating. Some drawings looked mostly human with only little differences, others looked completely alienated. The most disturbing ones were those who looked like a mix between insects and humans.

That stuff was made for horror movies. If Sam ever decided to look for another job there sure were some places she could use her ‘knowledge’.

The younger girl was so engaged in her drawings that the doorbell became background noise for her.

She had acknowledged a few people coming in and leaving but at one point stopped paying attention. Which was why she didn’t notice Vergil enter and sit down a few tables away from her or Florence talking to him.

Vergil, knowing who Sam was, was positively surprised to see her here. It was Dante’s job to look after her, that did include today as well and yet Vergil hadn’t seen him anywhere, nor did he contact Vergil. He didn’t mind looking after both, Florence and Sam at all, but he would have appreciated it if Dante had said anything about it. Being here gave Vergil the possibility to observe Sam. To find out what it was about her that made demons appear around her and what kept them from actually coming close to her. Because that seemed to be rather strange behavior. Demons sure didn’t have a problem to follow and attack Dante. Yes, given their father and the fact Dante had made himself known to Mundus, it was a different situation. Mundus wanted Dante gone, but Sam? Did the demons follow her on their own accord? Were they making sure she wasn’t a threat of any kind?

He could tell something about her wasn’t normal. 

Up until now, it was Dante who had been following her most of the time. Only occasionally Vergil would do so. Mostly because she had become suspicious of him. Dante was still able to move around her without being seen, though yesterday could have changed that when he killed the demon in the alley. Things could have gone wrong and they would be back to the start.

The younger twin hadn’t noticed anything aside from the usual amount of demons. Though, and Vergil noticed it too, they appeared more frequent.

What he also noticed was that Sam smelled like a demon. It was only a faint smell but he was able to notice it, and he was sure it was because of her and not of other demons. Could she be one herself? It seemed ridiculous. She had to know that herself and nowhere during the past weeks had she made any kind of comment or did anything that told him she was aware of that. If it turned out to be true this was getting more and more interesting.

He was aware that she had a problem with seeing demons in the first place. More than once he had seen or heard through Dante how she would turn on her heel or try to ignore them as best as she could. If Vergil didn’t know better he would have assumed she was afraid. Which certainly wasn’t unusual. He had seen how humans reacted when they saw a demon. Some would scream, others would stare at it in disbelieve. Most would eventually run away. One thing was always there: fear.

Demons, same for other creatures like angels or zombies and such, were things a lot of people considered to not be real. They existed in movies or books but in reality? It was natural for people to show fear if they came face to face with something that was unnatural to them. Sam showed feared when she faced demons. And she showed resentment.

When his phone rang it didn’t only catch him off guard, but also ended with Sam finally paying attention to her surroundings. 

There sure were a lot of people around. Some whom she had seen before and some who were strangers to her. She watched as Vergil answered his phone. He didn’t look very pleased with whoever was on the other end. When he finished his call he took his things and stood up. Instead of leaving right away he went to the counter. Sam could see Florence preparing something for takeaway while talking to Vergil. About what? She couldn’t say. What she could however say was that her friend seemed rather happy when the man leaned over the counter a little so he could reach her. Sam could barely see what was happening. Only when Vergil moved and ultimately left she could see a piece of paper in Florence’s hands as well as a smile and the slightest tinge of red on her face.

***

“Mundus is planning something for sure”, Dante paced up and down the room. “Whatever exactly happened earlier, it was an ambush. He’s getting restless.”

Before Dante had called Vergil to tell him to get back to their hideout he had been out and about. In the morning hours, he had followed Samantha and when she went to the café he decided to use his time for other things. Vergil would be there anyway and Dante assumed he would be perfectly able to handle keeping an eye on two people. After turning his back to the café he had been walking around town with Kat. She had accompanied him to several places that, over the past few weeks, had undergone an increase in demonic activity in order to find out what it was about. Kat had helped him to access Limbo so he could look for clues. He didn’t expect to find something per se. Demons yes, and they sure would attack him. Nothing bad about a little combat workout.

One thing Dante would never understand was that most demons he encountered if they were able to speak coherently, would mention various things instead of using their time to fight him. Most of the time the things they said were insults directed at him. This time there was something else they mentioned:

Mundus would find them and when he did, he would destroy them. He would also find the girl.

They never mentioned which girl they meant. There was no name given. It didn’t surprise Dante a lot if he was honest. He was the only one ever mentioned by name. He had never heard Vergil’s name or Kat’s. Mundus knew about the Order itself but not of who was part of it or where they were located.

During all the broadcasts for their cause, Vergil never said anything about a girl. No doubt the demons and thus Mundus meant Samantha. Whatever Vergil had sensed or noticed when he saw her for the first time, others seemed to have noticed the same. Maybe Mundus thought she was with them. It would explain today's events as he tried to leave Limbo through a doorway Kat had prepared.

As she waited for him to reappear by her side, looking around to make sure not to catch the attention of pedestrians, he literally stumbled into a hornets’ nest on his side.

One wrong turn and he came face to face with a large partly furred demon with insect wings who broke through a wall several feet to his right. Since the breaking of the wall did not only affect Limbo but also the normal world, the incident was all over the news by now. Reporters claimed that the wall of the apartment building had been damaged because of a gas explosion. Right, there were way too many people who believed that was the truth but Dante was just relieved no one got hurt during the ‘explosion’ and the fight that followed. 

Instead of using its last dying breath to curse Dante, the demon mentioned that Mundus wouldn’t stop searching for him and his friends. That he was going to find them and make sure they would find a painful end. That it wouldn’t make a difference if they found her before he would be able to do so.

Apparently, it would make a difference because why would Mundus feel the need to take them out as fast as possible. Didn’t seem to be an issue before.

“He wants us out of the way because he’s getting cold feet”, Vergil leaned against his desk in thought. This was interesting. Even more so because he seemed to be aware of Samantha’s existence. “I’m still not sure why he would care about the girl.”

“You care about her”, Dante interjected. “And I’m not talking about little Miss Coffee here.”

“She has a name and we need her as well. Samantha won’t come to us if Florence can’t trust us.”

“Whatever. When I got here you were keen on taking down Mundus and right now it appears that you spend more time at the café than here. I’m constantly out to track Samantha or hunt down clues with Kat”, he turned to look at his brother. It still was strange to him to find out he had a family. Find out about his parents and what he was. Knowing he wasn’t alone felt good, having a goal, a purpose, felt good. When he first got here and his brother told him about their parents, Mundus, demons and all that, he began to see things differently. 

“You know it’s not like that Dante.”

The younger twin let out a huff in annoyance. “So what are we going to do? You told me it was time to work on a plan and right now I feel we really should do that. Whatever is wrong with Samantha it would be better if we find out while she is here.”

“I agree. I’ve started to make preparations”, pushing himself off of the desk he walked around it and grabbed some papers. “I want you to go to the café for the next days while I follow Samantha. There are a few things I want to check”, he turned one of the papers for Dante to see. It was a confirmation for a delivery to an address Dante recognized. 

“That’s a fucking demon nest! She could get hurt.”

“I’ll be there to make sure she will be fine”, he reassured his brother. “Don’t worry about it.”

How was he supposed not to worry? Dante was curious himself and during his time following Samantha, he could tell she preferred to take detours around certain areas. Vergil was going to send her to such a place. If he wanted to find out if she was said ‘girl’ he could send one demon after her to get that answer but no. He wasn’t only risking her safety but also took into account that she would see him. And then? Would he tell her the truth right away? Because after all, he wanted to bring her here and thus had to tell her about the Order, about what he did. Very probably about what he was eventually. 

Saying his goodbye to Vergil, Dante left the office to find Kat waiting for him outside.

She gave him a smile and fell into line with him as he walked down the hallway. “And? You don’t look too happy right now.”

“I’m on café duty starting tomorrow.” 

She gave him a quizzical look. “Okay. Doesn’t sound too bad. I’ve never been there myself but from what I’ve heard it’s a nice place.”

“Heh. You wanna come? I could need some company as well as someone to keep me from telling that Florence girl what kind of a douchebag my brother is.”

“What did he do?”

Dante looked at Kat. “I feel like he’s gonna break a heart without giving a shit about it.”


	5. Yours a Familiar Face

Kat fell in love with the café as soon as she stepped inside.

The dark wood, the paintings, the smell of coffee all around. There were a few wing chairs, sofas and benches. Only a handful looked the same. Overall it was a colorful mix and when Kat sat down on a rather comfy looking armchair she smiled. She needed this one back in her room. Or just come here more often if the time allowed it. On the left side, a few feet away from the stairs leading up, was a small fireplace that appeared to only serve a decorative purpose. There were also several shelves adorned with plants, pictures and candles. This place was meant to make you feel at home. As Kat watched Dante she could tell that he wasn’t as happy as her. He sure wasn’t the type to sit down and have a drink but he didn’t have a choice now.

“Let’s make the best out of it okay?”, Kat gave him a reassuring smile as she said that. Dante had sat down next to her trying not to just prop his feet on the table out of habit.

“I’ll try”, looking around the café he noticed a young man behind the counter who was working on an order. There were three people waiting in line and while only two of them appeared to have come here together, the man preparing their drinks tried to engage all of them in a conversation. Whatever he was talking about it seemed to work. All of them had something to say. From the upper part of the café both, he and Kat could hear laughter. It wasn’t long afterward when footsteps echoed down the stairs and Florence came into the picture.

Carrying a tablet with used cups she walked into the kitchen but came back shortly after to take their order. 

“Good Morning. Do you already know what you would like to drink?”

“Coffee, black, no sugar”, Dante said before Kat had the chance to place her order. When she gave him a halfway annoyed look he just grinned at her.

Florence noticed the little exchange between them and couldn’t help but smile before turning her attention to the female. “And what can I get you?”

“I’d love some hot chocolate.”

“Of course. Would you like whipped cream with that?”

What kind of question was that? “Absolutely. I’ve noticed you sell cakes as well, anything you can recommend?”

“Well, naturally I have to recommend everything”, Florence said with a smile. “However, there is fresh strawberry cheesecake.”

“Now that does sound good”, suddenly café duty as Dante had called it didn’t seem to be too bad anymore. Who was he to say ‘no’ to that? Oh, he would get strawberry cake, as much as he could eat without feeling sick. Why did Vergil never mention that? Keeping all the good things to himself didn’t seem fair. “We’re taking some of that, right Kat?” She nodded in agreement.

“I’ll go and prepare your order right away.”

“No need to hurry”, Dante said with a smile. “We have time”, which wasn’t a lie. Technically he and Kat had to stay until Florence would leave and then make sure she would get home safely. In a way, it was the same ‘job’ he did when he followed Sam. The only difference being that now he would stay in one place instead of walking all over the city.

Florence had already turned around and walked back behind the counter. Preparing drinks had become something she could do in her sleep. It was relaxing for her and even back home she would practice. Especially back when she was a newbie. Sam and Nate would have to try whatever drinks she was making. Or trying to make. As with most things you try out for the first time things go wrong. For example cooking: you would burn the food, use too much or not enough spices. Practice makes perfect and Florence took that serious.

What once was hard work that tired her out, had turned into something she loved. And this wasn’t the only thing she had learned over the months she had worked at the café.

Serving people was something she had never done and on top of that something she, in a way, was afraid of.

It was hard for Florence to speak with strangers at first. Even if it was just the bare minimum and not an hour-long conversation. She would forget to greet them or to smile, and when she had taken the order literally run away to hide. Joseph had helped her to overcome the initial fear of talking to people, though even now there were moments she fell back into old habits and would hide. It was so much easier to be open to someone she knew or, like the couple she had talked to just now, were enjoying themselves and radiated that joy. Even though Florence noticed the man looked kind of lost in here. The woman, however, looked the complete opposite so maybe it had been her idea and he tagged along.

As she prepared the drinks she overheard the conversation Mike was having with three other customers. Two of them already had their drinks but didn’t look like they would leave anytime soon. 

“Was anyone hurt?”, Mike asked curiously.

“Not that I’m aware of”, a blonde haired man said. He took a sip from his drink. “From what I heard there were some people who were in shock afterward.”

“Naturally”, another dark-haired man said. “I sure would be.”

Interested in what this was about Florence chimed in. “May I ask what you guys are talking about?”

The second man looked at her to answer. “There was another explosion not that long ago. Like the one at the apartment building”, Florence nodded. She had seen the reports and now there was a second one? “It’s all over the news. I believe it was an old factory or something which is now an office building for a shoe company. Luckily they were closed today thanks to some company trip.”

“There were still people around though”, it was the third person in the round, a red-haired female. “It’s not too far from a park that’s usually highly frequented.”

The blonde man pulled out his phone as the woman spoke. Typing something he turned it so Mike and Florence could see. It was a video of a news report showing the building and the area around. The reporter, just like the other man before, mentioned the first explosion and said that police now had to assume both incidents were linked together. Even if at first it was said it was a simple gas explosion. With this one following so close behind something was happening in this city and no one could tell what.

It was only a matter of time before someone would bring up the idea of deploying police everywhere or a curfew. Even if no one had been hurt now or during the first explosion, who knew if it would stay that way. Maybe Sam had made Florence watch too many movies but to her, both those incidents had to have the same origin. Well, maybe it was time to stop watching movies or otherwise she would start to see some kind of conspiracy behind it. 

Leaving Mike and the customers to their own theories, Florence went back to finish her own order. Grabbing two pieces of cake she continued to listen to the conversation, though half-heartedly. She didn’t want to bother herself with any more bad news for the rest of the day or the next few weeks. There was so much more to look forward to:

Joseph would be back soon, meaning Florence wouldn’t need to work as much and so she could spend more time with Sam. With them being alone at home, they could have girl nights. Cook together, maybe watch movies even if that would result in more conspiracies. Or maybe drive out of town for a day or two to recharge their batteries.

A change of scenery was always a good plan after all.

***

“You’ve been very lucky.”

Sam focused her attention from the paramedic tending to a wound on her arm, to a police officer walking up to her. She had been lucky indeed. When she had gotten the assignment a voice inside told her to not take the job. Let someone else do it. She was aware there were demons around this part of town. More than elsewhere and she didn’t intend to run straight into them. She should have known things wouldn’t go smoothly.

“I guess so”, Sam said before watching the paramedic wrap a bandage around her arm. It was only a scratch. When a demon had torn down a wall close to her, she had been hit by some of the debris. If she had been just a little faster she might have gotten buried under the wall or the demon might even have attacked her straight on. However, she had managed to get away and had no idea what happened to the demon or rather the demons as more followed the first one. She didn’t see any around at the moment. If they ran away the question was: what did they run away from? Or did someone kill them?

“I’m Officer Greer, I would like to find out what happened. Any information you have is of importance here”, he had a small notepad and a pen ready to write down anything Sam would tell him.

But what could she say without sounding like she was crazy? She definitely couldn’t mention the demons. “I’m working as a bike courier and had a package I needed to deliver. I drove past the building and then the wall.. I don’t know”, Sam shook her head. There had been a similar incident before. An explosion at an apartment building. Seeing what had happened today, she wondered if that had been a demon as well. “There was a news report about an explosion, is this the same thing?”

Narrowing his brown eyes while writing down what she had said, Greer looked at her. “To be honest, I’m not sure but there is a possibility. Which is why I need all the information I can get from anyone who has witnessed this incident. Anything unusual, any other people being around?”

“I didn’t really notice anything. There were a few other people walking by but as far as I can tell”, she pointed to another ambulance where two young men were currently checked on. A few feet away were more people who were interviewed by other officers. “They’re all around. I wish I could tell you more than that.”

“I appreciate that”, he smiled. He was glad that no one got hurt. How was a mystery to him. The first explosion wasn’t different from this one. No casualties. If someone was trying to make a point or to attract attention they didn’t do it right. There were no notes left behind, no one ever claimed they were responsible. It was yet another mystery. “If you remember anything don’t hesitate to call”, he handed her a card with his number on it.

Sam took it from him, a little smile on her lips. “Will do. You didn’t happen to see a phone lying around somewhere? I guess I lost it during all the chaos.”

“I haven’t seen anything but I’ll ask my colleagues”, he assured her. “If you want to call someone you can use my phone”, with that he handed her his.

Saying her thanks to the officer Sam began typing in Flo’s number. She didn’t bother calling work to inform them what had happened, she could do that later. After what she had just witnessed not even an hour ago she needed to hear her best friend's voice. When the wall was destroyed there was a brief moment where Sam feared that this was it. In movies, people would go on about how their whole life flashed by. It wasn’t anything like that. All Sam was thinking right then was how she wouldn’t be able to go back home to see Florence and Nate again. How they couldn’t grow old together anymore.

It didn’t matter that Sam knew work should be more important than calling Florence. The last delivery was way too late by now and she figured the receiver had called in to ask about it. No doubt one of her superiors had tried to call her to ask what was going on. Maybe she could make a second phone call to inform them about what had happened or ask Florence to do so and then call later. Whatever she would do in the end, Sam needed some time off. Not only because her bike was covered somewhere under the debris and she didn’t have a spare one, but also because she needed a break from work. This town. 

Though she knew there was no way to run away from demons, she wanted to try it. Even if it was only for a while.

Sam listened to the dial tone and with each passing second, she grew more restless. Maybe she should’ve called the café instead of Florence. She expected the mailbox answering any second now when someone did pick up. Just not Florence. Instead, it was Mike.

“Why do you have Flo’s phone?”

_“Hello to you as well Sam. It’s nice to hear your voice”_ , he chuckled a bit as he said that. _“Flo is busy and when I heard the phone I went to check who was calling. Did you get a new phone?”_

“No, I didn’t. It’s not mine. Can you get Flo? I need to talk to her.”

_“Sure, give me a second, I’ll go get her.”_

Sam could hear how Mike placed the phone on, probably, a table and then it was quiet for a bit. At one point Sam could hear him again and then she also could hear Florence. Not long after that, the phone was picked up and Florence spoke.

_“Sam? I’m surprised you’re calling. Everything okay?”_

She shook her head despite Florence not being able to see. “No. I mean, kind of. I need you to do something for me. I don’t know if you heard anything but there was an incident. An explosion.”

_“That old factory? Yeah, a few customers talked about it not that long ago. Why?”_ , there was a short pause before Florence continued. Obviously realizing what Sam was getting at. _“Please tell me you’re okay!”_

“I am. Just a little scratch, lost my phone and my bike is, well, not usable anymore. I’ll tell you about it when I’m home, right now I need to ask you a favor.”

_“Anything.”_

“Can you call work for me? Tell them I was in an accident and that I’ll call them later. You might as well tell them I’m gonna take a few days off just so they know”, and then she would take Florence and run away as far as possible. At least in her imagination. Sam was fully aware Florence needed to work and couldn’t just go with her. But even if Sam would simply stay at home or tag along to the café it was still better than working and maybe running into a similar situation. Officer Greer had said there was no proof this ‘explosion’ had to do anything with the first one. Sam wasn’t anywhere near that, in fact, she had been at the café back then but she began to wonder if it had been a demon too.

_“Will do that, don’t worry.”_

“Yeah well, you better don’t worry.”

_“Kind of hard”_ , Florence laughed. It sounded way too forced to Sam. _“I’m glad you’re okay.”_

“Same. I see you later”, hanging up after Florence said goodbye, Sam took a moment to look around. Officer Greer was talking to other people and Sam didn’t want to interrupt him just to give him back his phone. She decided to wait until he was finished. In the meantime, she looked around. By now there were quite a few people who had gathered around to look at what had happened. Not that they would ever know.

Sam asked herself if or what she should tell Florence later. She wanted to be honest. Tell her it was a demon but what else? After it had appeared, it had turned to her, talked to her. The demon knew her name and it said it would kill her. Doing so apparently would make someone called Mundus satisfied and earn the demon respect and some sort of promotion. It was the first time Sam had heard the name. Knowing her luck not the last time though. Just who was that person and why would he want her dead? This whole situation just got weirder every moment and without having someone to ask about it, Sam assumed it would stay that way for a while.

Sighing she put the phone to the side, her free hand now tracing the bandage on her arm. Whether it were the painkillers she had received or whatever little bit of adrenalin was left, the wound didn’t hurt as bad anymore. She truly had been lucky.

When she heard some commotion to her left Sam turned to check it out. It appeared as if one of the reporters had tried to get behind the police line and now two cops escorted him back to where other reporters and bystanders were. The reporter wasn’t having any of it though. He complained that he was just doing his job and that the people of the city had the right to know what was going on. Sam didn’t see how he would find out anything by getting closer.

As she watched on something else caught her eye. Or rather someone else.

Unsure whether or not she was imagining it, Sam tried to get a better look by standing up but because of the people standing in her line of view, it was nearly impossible. She could barely see the person as they turned and walked away from the scene. Sam couldn’t help but wonder if her eyes were playing tricks on her or not because what little she could make out, that person looked a lot like Vergil.


	6. The Chase has just Begun

Sam’s boss was an understanding person. He was glad that she hadn’t been hurt badly and told her to stay home for the next week. He even offered to get her a new bike, something she appreciated a lot. She didn’t necessarily have the money to buy a new one herself right away and even if the one her boss would get would be a temporary solution for her, it was a nice thing to do. He didn’t mention anything regarding the delivery so she figured that had been taken care of. Hopefully, it wasn’t anything important and could be replaced without much trouble. But Sam didn’t want to worry about that right now.

She wanted to forget what had happened.

Yes, she intended to tell Florence about the incident. Not what the news said but what she had actually experienced herself. The demon, how it talked about killing her and someone called Mundus. No secrets anymore. That was something Sam felt she was obligated to share with Florence, believing it would be easier to deal with whatever was happening if they could trust each other completely. If she had done so before Sam was sure she would’ve reacted differently to seeing Florence sitting together with Vergil.

Which brought her to another, maybe, problem:

Vergil.

The man she had seen earlier did look like him. Even though there was quite some distance between her and him she was pretty sure it was him. It could have been a coincidence or maybe not.

As far as Sam was aware Vergil wasn’t in town. That’s what Florence had told her at least. When she had seen Vergil handing her best friend a piece of paper Sam went and asked her about it. Turned out he had to go out of town for some kind of business deal and decided to leave his number behind.

Florence appreciated that notion. He left it to her whether or not she wanted to talk to him instead of asking for her number. Given that a few people thought he was creepy it was the better option. She confined in Sam about it. Wondering if she should write to him or wait to not look like she was desperate to talk to him. For Sam the answer was easy: wait. He had come to the café for a long time without talking to Florence, so he kind of had her left waiting. Now it would be the other way around.

There was no doubt on Sam’s side that Florence believed what Vergil had told her was the truth and Sam wanted to leave her friend to believe that for as long as possible.

Or at least until she could make sure it had been him or not.

Letting out a sigh she lay down on her bed.

The moment Sam had gotten home she had made her way to her room and didn’t intend to come out until Florence was here as well. While Sam did feel safe inside the apartment she felt even safer inside her own room. Like nothing could get to her in here unless she allowed it to. After today she needed that feeling of safety more than ever as it was the first time a demon intended to kill her. As a child, she had only seen them. They would look at her, maybe follow her but never had they tried to talk to her. So what had changed? As she wondered about it she heard the front door unlock and shortly after she heard Florence call for her.

“Sam? Are you there?”

Florence closed the door behind her only to hear another open followed by footsteps. When she saw Sam walking down the hallway into her direction a little smile crept onto her lips. Putting down her own bag as well as a grocery bag, she walked towards Sam and gave her a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I only heard and saw a bit about what happened but you got me worried a lot after your call”, she pulled away from the hug and looked Sam over, now noticing the bandage for the first time. A little scratch? Going by the size of the bandage it was more than that.

“It’s not as bad as it looks”, Sam immediately said when she noticed how Florence looked at her arm. “Though.. there are a few things I want to talk about. Regarding what happened because whatever you heard it’s not the truth.”

“I figured”, she pointed at the grocery bag. “I got a few things, some snacks and something to drink. Thanks to Mike. I do have to work late tomorrow since he helped me out but that means we can have a movie night today, order food and stay up late. Whatever you would like.”

Giving Florence a questioning look Sam answered. “Sounds great. Can I choose where we order?” The answer was a simple nod. “I’d love to get something from that Italian place down the street. They have the best tiramisu, hands down.”

“Sure, let's do that”, together with Sam, Florence walked over to pick up the groceries to store them away. While she did so Sam went to check the menu, trying to decide what else to order aside from the aforementioned tiramisu.

There were a few things that interested her so it was hard to decide. Maybe they could order a bit more or share. Looking up from the menu Sam watched Florence put away two bottles of alcohol, what exactly she wasn’t able to tell. “Are you okay? You said Mike bought that but I know you’re not particularly fond of alcohol unless it’s something sweet. I can tell that stuff doesn’t fit that term even without knowing what it is.”

Propping herself up on the counter Florence stared down at her hands. “I’m not”, she turned to Sam with a sigh. “Since you called I just.. if something had happened to you I wouldn’t know what to do. Yesterday you told me that you were afraid to lose me and today I’m the one to say that I’m just as afraid to lose you. I saw a news report about what happened at the building, I saw that torn down wall.. that scratch as you call it”, she pointed at the bandage wrapped around Sam’s arm. “Could’ve been much more than just that. I think we both could need a drink and given you told me that there’s more to the ‘explosion’ a few minutes ago, I feel like getting Mike to buy us alcohol was a wise decision. And if I’m honest, when I sent him to do so I didn’t care about what he got.”

“Sorry for making you worry.”

Florence shook her head. “It’s okay. You didn’t intend to do so.”

“Yeah”, she paused for a moment. “I want to tell you about it. The truth about what happened. What I saw.”

When Sam said those words Florence had a good idea where this was going. The conversation they had had last evening, about demons all over the city. If this had been a demon Florence wondered if they could ever be safe. Be it here in Limbo City or somewhere else in the world. Turning towards Sam Florence gave her a weak smile. “Let’s order food first, then sit down in the living room to talk.”

“Sounds like a great idea.”

With that said Florence joined Sam and after a couple of minutes, they came to a conclusion about what they wanted to order. As Florence made the call Sam picked up several snacks, as well as glasses and one of the bottles. She also made sure to get some non-alcoholic drinks. While she agreed that both of them could need a drink, Florence still had to go to work the next day. Late shift or not. Maybe Sam would go with her or she would stay at home and hide in her room. She wasn’t sure which option would be the better choice at this point. 

Whatever she was doing, it felt as if it was the wrong thing to do. If she hadn’t taken the assignment today and encountered the demon, she would have had a similar encounter another day for sure.

Sam had gotten comfortable on the couch. Turning on the TV she began scrolling through their movie library or rather Nate’s since it was his account. She wasn’t sure what to watch, she only knew it should be something without demons because she had had enough of those for the day. Right now she was leaning towards either a Disney movie or some comedy, maybe even some sappy romance one.

“Food is ordered”, Florence said as she walked into the living room and went to sit next to Sam. She turned to look at the TV. “Did you already decide on something?”

“Not yet. Maybe we can both pick one to watch. There should be time for two movies right?”, Sam asked and received a nod in response. Good. As she continued to scroll through the movies and Florence began to pour both of them a drink, Sam took the moment to start talking about what really happened earlier that day. About what she had seen and experienced herself.

Despite not wanting to hear anything about it, Florence listened intently to what Sam told her. This was after all something Sam had experienced since she was little. Well, not exactly. Sam told her that this was the first time a demon said that it wanted to kill her. That it was the first time she had heard the name Mundus being said. Florence herself hadn’t heard the name either and going by what Sam told her she could’ve gone without knowing about it. 

Nate and her were the reason Sam was here in Limbo City to begin with. If Nate had decided to study somewhere else or somewhere close to their hometown without moving far away, they would still be there. Maybe this, Sam being attacked, would have eventually happened no matter what they would do, who could tell. But as things were right now, Florence felt responsible if Sam got hurt or worse if she died. She didn’t want to imagine. Listening to everything Sam told her she felt sick to her stomach. She wanted Sam to feel safe, to be safe but how was she able to do that?

Sam couldn’t protect herself. She was able to run away from demons yes because she could see them, but demons tearing down walls to get to her? There was no escaping that unless you could predict the future. Which wasn’t something Sam was able to do as far as Florence could tell.

“Someone killed them. The demons I mean. I don’t know who but that means there’s someone else here who can see them and effectively fight them it seems”, Sam didn’t intend to tell Florence about how she thought she had seen Vergil at the scene. She wasn’t sure what his intentions were. He was spending a lot of time at the café, he gave Florence his number, had coffee with her - he made it seem like he was interested in her but then he would follow Sam? It didn’t make sense to her.

“Well”, Florence closed her eyes in thought. “Maybe.. if there is someone who is like you in a way, I mean you never told me you have been fighting demons before, we could find them? They have to be able to see them too right?”

“I guess so, yes but I don’t even know where to look. I don’t believe there’s some kind of dating agency that’s like ‘You see demons and want to share that with someone? We’re here to help’. As much as I would like that”, the last part was more or less directed to herself more than to anyone else. She wanted to find people like her. People she could talk to without feeling like she was crazy. Florence didn’t give her that feeling either but she was the only one Sam could talk to. Having more people seemed to be better. Who knew if Florence wasn’t getting tired about all the demon talk eventually. Maybe, if the occasion did arrive, she would actually try and ask Vergil if he had been at the scene today. She was too curious not to do so. “Anyway, right now I just wanna watch something, forget about what happened earlier and have a nice evening with you.”

“I’m all for that”, huddling closer to Sam both of them tried to find movies to watch for the next few hours.

It wasn’t clear when exactly the doorbell rang and their food arrived, nor how much they drank or how long they sat together in the living room. They simply enjoyed each other's company for several hours until both of them became too tired to pay attention to the movie playing. Sam was the first to nod off, her head slowly moving until it was resting on Florence’s shoulder. When the older noticed the extra weight she turned to look and smiled. Moving her arm she began to gently shake Sam awake so she could go and sleep in her bed, which would be way more comfortable than the couch.

After Florence had made sure Sam didn’t trip over her own feet on the way, she went back to the living room to turn off the TV and put away the leftovers before retreating back to her own room and getting ready for bed. She could feel her head spinning slightly and was glad once she was changed so she could just go and lie down.

Grabbing her phone she set an alarm for the next day. She tried to make it as late as possible without risking oversleeping or coming to work late.

Looking at the screen of her phone Florence contemplated if she should call Vergil. He had given her his number so she could do exactly that or well, write him which she felt would be the better choice. It was already past 2 am and she was a little tipsy. Not the best combination. Whenever she would have a drink, which wasn’t often since she wasn’t legally allowed to, she got intoxicated way too fast for her own liking. And then she would start to talk. More than she should. And so, with what little control she had left, she decided against calling Vergil and instead began to type a message.

~*~

Vergil was still awake when his phone gave off a single notification sound and the screen lit up.

He didn’t expect anyone to contact him that late and at first he wasn’t sure of who it would be anyway. It couldn’t be Dante or Kat, they were just a few rooms across from his and then, even before checking his phone, another person came to his mind: Florence.

Sure enough, when he picked up his phone the number that was displayed was one he didn’t know and when he opened the message to read it, the first sentence gave away that it was indeed Florence who had written him. A part of him had expected her to do so while the other hadn’t. Seeing as he had barely been away for a day the chances of her calling or writing him were slim. Not to mention that based on what he knew about her she didn’t strike him as the kind of person to just contact him after that short amount of time.

However, it was good that she did so.

It meant she was trusting him at least a bit at this point. 

_“Hey, this is Florence. From the café. Sorry for writing you this late, I know you’re probably asleep already and since you said you have to work there are probably a lot of things you need to take care of. I hope you’re doing fine. Things here are definitely getting weird. Not sure if you heard about it but there has been another explosion. Well.. actually I just wanted to write to you and tell you that I’m looking forward to seeing you again. Anyway, that’s kind of it I guess. Goodnight.”_

Vergil began to smirk.

Of course, he knew about the explosion, he had been there when it happened. He had also been the one to kill the demons and was lucky he wasn’t spotted. Samantha had noticed him in the aftermath. He was sure of that. Going by the message it didn’t appear as if she had told Florence anything about it but maybe there were reasons behind that. Things were still working in his favor and tomorrow at this time both, Samantha and Florence would be here within the walls of the Order.

And hopefully what little bit of trust Florence felt for him would be enough to make her and thus Samantha stay.

~*~

When Sam woke up the next day the sun was already high in the sky, brightening up her room.

She didn’t remember how she got in her bed or when for that matter. Though somewhere in the back of her mind she thought she could remember Florence helping her last night. Which did make sense to her.

Florence hadn’t drunk as much as she did and overall Sam considered her the more responsible one out of the two of them. It was clear she wouldn’t drink a lot because of work which, after turning to look at her clock, was where Florence should be right now. Just how long did she sleep? Not that she did mind. She did need that sleep after all. 

Turning around in her bed she faced the room. She could see the rays of sunshine fall through the balcony door. For a few minutes, she just laid there and watched the dust dance through the light. It was mesmerizing. If it wouldn’t have been for her stomach reminding her to eat something, she would have stayed in bed a little longer. Stretching her arms she began to sit up, her feet hitting the semi-cold floor as she did so. That sure did help to wake her up a little.

Standing up Sam walked over to her balcony and opened the door to let some fresh air get inside. Even if the window had been open throughout the night, it was a different thing to open the door and step outside. Maybe it was a good idea to make breakfast and eat out here. The day, so far, looked like it was going to be nice and since Sam didn’t plan on going outside, sitting on her balcony was a good alternative.

After making herself breakfast and sitting outside to eat it, she cleaned the dishes and went to take a bath. 

Today was going to be a slow day, or so Sam had hoped.

It was already late when she took out the trash only to be stopped on her way back up. A neighbor, Mrs. Henriks, opened her door as Sam was on her way back upstairs. Mrs. Henriks was a woman in her mid-sixties. She and her husband lived on the second floor. They were nice people, Sam couldn’t deny that. Their children and grandchildren didn’t live close so they weren’t around a lot. After Sam, Florence and Nate moved in Mrs. Henriks would check on them, sometimes make them food but mostly she would talk. It could get tiresome but today Sam actually was glad about it.

Yes, she didn’t pay attention to the time and forget to write Florence to let her know where she was. 

And that was now coming back to bite her in the ass. 

When Sam said her goodbye to Mrs. Henriks she wasn’t prepared for what was about to unfold. Walking up the stairs she took the keys from her pocket and even before she went to open the door, she could hear steps inside coming towards her. Steps as if someone was running. What was going on inside? 

As Sam opened the door she saw Florence running towards her, the older girl realized too late what was going on and collided with her, causing Florence to stumble and fall backward.

“Flo?”, she could see the pained expression on her best friends face as she fell but why was she running? Or maybe she should have asked what Florence was running away from. Turning her attention away from Florence and down the hallway leading to the bedrooms, Sam’s eyes widened in horror.

From around the corner leading to her room, she saw a creature step forward. Humanoid in appearance though its limbs were longer and overall it looked starved, skin tight to its bones, eyes red. Sam took a step backward. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening. She wanted to run away but then she remembered Florence was still there and she was running from this thing, which meant she could see it and it followed her. Grabbing Nate’s skateboard that leaned against the wall close to the entrance Sam was getting ready to attack. The last thing she was going to let happen was Florence getting hurt.

Before the demon or creature could get any closer, a loud crash from the living room and glass falling to the floor caught her attention.

Looking towards the noise another humanoid shape appeared to be walking into their direction. This one actually being more human looking and the closer it got, the more Sam realized it was an actual human. One she thought she had seen before during her deliveries.

Sam lowered the skateboard a little. “Who the hell are you?”

“The name is Dante”, with that he grabbed the hilt of a sword on his back and moved towards the creature still stalking towards the girls, though its focus had shifted towards Dante now.

Neither Sam nor Florence could tell what was happening exactly. Dante, as he called himself, moved too fast for them to make out details. All they saw was the creature getting impaled by a sword. It began screeching and tried to grab Dante but before it could, the sword cut through it and severed it in half. As the creature fell to the ground Florence got back up and moved in front of Sam. 

“What is that thing and what are you doing here?”

Looking up at Florence, Dante sheathed his sword and took two steps towards her. “A demon. I’m sure you heard of them”, as he said that he looked at Sam who narrowed her eyes. “We’re here to get the two of you to safety.”

“We’re?”, as soon as Sam asked this she heard steps behind her. Looking around she saw another person walking up the stairs and towards her and Florence. A female dressed in a hoodie she had up over her head, possibly to not be recognized right away, denim shorts and boots. To Sam, she was a stranger, to Florence not.

She had turned to look at the second person as well and was surprised when she realized the two people, who were just waltzing into her home, were customers from the café. 

Just what the hell was going on right now or maybe the better question would be what Sam and her had gotten themselves into.


End file.
